TRON: LEGACY

The Cast Of Tron: Legacy
The filmmakers searched for actors who could bring the vision of "TRON: Legacy” to life—whether they played "users” or "programs.” The first task was to draw Jeff Bridges in to reprise his role of Kevin Flynn, the genius game developer—and to play opposite his younger self as Clu. Bridges, who won an Oscar® for his leading role in "Crazy Heart,” was not hard to convince. "I got a pitch from the director, Joe Kosinski,” says the iconic actor. "You've got to give Disney credit for seeing his potential. They were smart because he's such a calm, can-do guy. Joe made a wonderful pitch on the story, where it was going, and that was intriguing to me. Then he showed me his reel, and I saw some of the technology that he had available to him. So then, it was basically the same reason that I did the first one—it was cutting-edge technology at that time, and this one certainly is for this time. Plus, it's a whole different way of making movies that I haven't experienced.”

Jeff Bridges re-creates the role he originated in 1982's "TRON,” 28 years ago; possibly the longest-ever span for an actor between creating and revisiting a film role.

Finding the right actor to play Kevin Flynn's son Sam, opposite Jeff Bridges, was next up. Hundreds of hopefuls auditioned for the part but in the end it went to newcomer Garrett Hedlund ("Friday Night Lights,”"Four Brothers”). Hedlund had to train in motorcycle riding, hand-to-hand combat, wirework, capoeira and parkour to prepare for the role of the extreme sportsman Sam. But Bridges took Hedlund under his wing, and helped prepare the young actor for the demands of such effects-heavy film work. Hedlund comments, "I've always looked at him like the kind of father any kid would love to have, because he's got that playful side, while he's also incredibly wise.”

Olivia Wilde ("House,” "Turistas”) joined the cast as Quorra, a skilled warrior who is Kevin Flynn's confidante. Wilde had never played such a physically demanding role but was up for the training she and Hedlund had to undertake in preparation for their roles. "I had never done anything as physical as this film, and it required more than I ever expected, which is great. Luckily, we had such an incredible team of trainers,” says Wilde.

Wilde loved playing the strong, spunky character Quorra. "It's fantastic to be able to play a very strong, capable woman,” says Wilde, "in what could be considered a very male-centric film. She's a very important part of the story, and a female role unlike anything I've ever seen before.” Wilde adds, "I really think that this film will appeal to women as well—and young girls. And I want young girls to want to be Quorra for Halloween. I want them to feel like she's a character they can relate to, but who also inspires them to be powerful.”

Michael Sheen needed less of an introduction to the world of effects projects, following his role as Lucian in the "Underworld” films. In "TRON: Legacy,” Sheen plays Castor, a dandified club owner.

Treading the line between darkness and light, Castor presented an interesting possibility for Sheen. "I'm a program. I'm not actually a person. But because, in the digital world of the Grid, the programs are all personified, then it's quite interesting to ask, ‘What sort of program is he?' My character's been around since the earliest days, or so he says, so I had to work out his place in terms of the history of the TRON world.”

Rounding out the cast are Bruce Boxleitner ("Heroes,” "Babylon 5”), again in his role as Alan Bradley from "TRON”; James Frain ("True Blood,” "The Tudors”) as Clu's henchman; and Beau Garrett ("Criminal Minds,” "Entourage”), the leader of the Sirens. Hedlund has always been a fan of Jeff Bridges and always had a feeling that he would work with him one day. The opportunity to play Bridges' on-screen son was "a very surreal experience for me,” says Hedlund.

Olivia Wilde and her co-star Garrett Hedlund have wanted to work together ever since they met while working on their separate debut projects seven years ago.

Michael Sheen cites many "showmen” as inspirational to his creating Castor—from Mae West to Ziggy Stardust.

KEVIN FLYNN (Jeff Bridges)

One of the original computer geniuses, this game-developer broke new ground by pioneering the digital world of the Grid—he turned ENCOM into an information superpower and then left without a trace in 1989

Brilliant game designer Kevin Flynn always wanted the best of both worlds—digital and real. After he became the first human being to enter the astonishing digital world of the Grid, he decided that the best way to achieve that was to combine the two. So, he created the sophisticated Clu 2.0 program and used it in secret to help him design a Utopian existence that combined the highest ideals of the human and digital worlds. The daytime corporate wunderkind became the nighttime builder of the Grid. Then, one day in 1989, Kevin Flynn mysteriously disappeared. Now, he has discovered first-hand how true the warning "be careful what you wish for” is—trapped in the world of his own creation, all he can do is wait and hope that something will change and he will once again have a chance to return to his home and son.

SAM FLYNN (Garrett Hedlund)

The only son of Kevin Flynn—an adventurous and rebellious 27-year-old who has turned away from the ENCOM money and is haunted by his father's disappearance

Kevin Flynn's only son Sam was born in 1983 and, until Kevin's disappearance in 1989, father and son shared a strong and close bond. Kevin was everything to Sam, who seemed destined to follow in his iconoclastic father's footsteps. When Kevin disappeared, his friend and ENCOM partner Alan Bradley served as Sam's surrogate father. Now it's 20 years later and Sam is an angry loner who would much rather jump off a building or push a motorcycle to its limit than put on a suit and jump into the corporate intrigue at ENCOM. When Bradley informs Sam that he's received a message he's sure came from the elder Flynn, Sam reluctantly starts poking around his dad's old arcade, and soon finds himself zapped into the cyber world that has kept his father prisoner for the past two decades. There, instead of facing corporate executives, he is confronted with a digital universe beyond imagining, and he's given a chance to find and rescue the parent he thought abandoned him years before.

QUORRA (Olivia Wilde)

A unique program that acts as Kevin Flynn's confidante and sometimes warrior, helping him survive his life in exile

The unique program Quorra is like a surrogate daughter to Flynn—a confidante with intelligence, inquisitiveness and the fighting ability to blow just about anyone away. He teaches her of the outside world and in return, she offers him undying loyalty. As a result of her education, however, Quorra adopts Flynn's yearning for knowledge and now longs to experience the "user” world that lies far beyond the realm of possibility. So, when she crosses paths with Sam Flynn, he seems to be the person both she, and Kevin Flynn, were waiting for. And when the surrogate family's peaceful home life explodes, they find themselves battling their way across the treacherous cyber landscape of the elder Flynn's own making.

CLU (Jeff Bridges)

A master program created in Kevin Flynn's image to help oversee the expansion of the digital domain but who has gone rogue and seized control of the Grid and its inhabitants

When Kevin Flynn created the first Clu program, it was intended to help him find proof that the genius's best ideas were being

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